James Suckling Most Recent Comments: See Also: Waking up with a Smile in the MorningPosted: 01:36 PM ET, March 04, 2009 I don't want to smoke a cigar today. I woke up this morning with a smile on my face. No it wasn't what you think! It was because I smoked another Cohiba Siglo VI Gran Reserva last night with some friends at the Paila restaurant in Havana.
I lit up the canonazo —the name the factory workers use—the moment I sat down at in the small, private outdoor restaurant. It measures 52 ring gauge by 5 7/8 inches. And I was in heaven the moment I cut the cigar and took a draw. Even cold it tasted good with a fresh herb, nut and coffee bean character when I drew. Once on fire, it delivered spice, coffee, milk chocolate, floral, and cedar notes. It kept on changing every moment. And the finish was so long, clean and fresh. 100 points, unblind.
You may not want to believe it. But it is a perfect cigar. I can't think of another young cigar in my life that has delivered such complex, multi-layered character with such length and finesse. The subtle flavors last for minutes on the palate.
I gave my other Gran Reserva to a friend at the dinner. The two cigars were in a small lacquered box from the Habanos Festival Gala Dinner on Friday. The cigar blew my friend away. This is a guy who smokes 1998 Trinidads like Marlboros and has a humidor full of aged smokes. Read more
OjaláPosted: 12:24 PM ET, March 03, 2009 I was not surprised to see a change in Raúl Castro’s government yesterday. I think that Castro wants to have people he feels that can really trust as he creates a new future for his country 50 years after the Revolution. Some of the people moved from key positions were closer to his brother than him.
Just what that future is for Cuba, nobody really knows at this time. It will certainly be different than before.
I still have good feelings about what’s ahead between the United States and Cuba. I invited statesman Ricardo Alarcón to dinner last Saturday with author Miguel Barnet and some other friends. And I was happy both men were so upbeat about the situation with America and our new government.
Alarcón is the president of Cuba’s National Assembly of the People’s Power. The 70-year-old is one of the most public and outspoken individuals in the Cuban government and a close confident of the Castro brothers. He also served as Cuba’s ambassador to the United Nations for 12 years, and he was Minster of Foreign Affairs. He is also a keen cigar smoker. I seldom see him without a Cohiba Lancero in his hand.
In any case, Alarcón was sure that President Obama would reinstate more relaxed travel restrictions for Cuban Americans and other licensed travelers as well as unrestricted remittances to the island and credit terms for sales of American agricultural products. Read more
Perfect Cigar, Perfect NightPosted: 04:06 PM ET, March 02, 2009 I smoked the greatest young cigar in my life on Friday night – the Cohiba Siglo VI Gran Reserva. I was spellbound by the cigar’s amazing richness yet beautiful elegance and finesse. This is a cigar that fills your mouth with light coffee, toasted nuts, flowers and aged tobacco, yet it’s fresh and clean and leaves your mouth with a clean and vibrant finish. It’s the perfect smoke—100 points, unblind.
Some of my unbridled enthusiasm for the special Cohiba had to be the euphoric feeling of being at this year’s Gala Dinner on Friday that ended five days of the XI Festival Habano. It was the best festival yet, with the introduction of other excellent cigars besides the Siglo VI Gran Reserva (the Trinidad Robusto T, in particular) and a number of great parties, tastings and factory visits.
The limited production Siglo VI, which was officially launched on Friday night, is made with five-year old tobacco and comes in numbered boxes of 15 smokes. Only 5,000 boxes (for a total of 75,000 cigars) were produced at El Laguito, according Habanos, the marketing and distribution company for Cuban cigars. (I originally thought it was made at Partagas!) It is supposed to retail for close to $1,000 a box, depending on the market.
I have to admit (I hope my girlfriend is not reading this) that I smoked way too much that night in Havana. Read more
Reserved CigarsPosted: 01:34 PM ET, February 27, 2009 I had the chance to unofficially smoke the Cohiba Gran Reserva last night during a private dinner at La Guarida restaurant in Centro Havana, and I almost fell out of my chair. I was really blown away by the richness and power of the smoke. It had such great length with coffee, tobacco and dark chocolate character that filled the mouth. It had the classic freshness of the Cohiba brand as well.
I can’t wait to smoke it again tonight at the Gala dinner at the Festival Habano. I will save my final judgment until tomorrow. But this could be the perfect young cigar. I heard that it comes in a special box of 15 cigars, and they will sell for close to $50 to $60 a cigar.
As I have already written, the special Cohiba is the same vitola as the Cohiba Siglo VI. It’s called the canonazo in the factories, and it measures 52 ring gauge by 5 7/8 inches. The regular production Siglo VI is my favorite cigar made on the island. It’s no accident that I chose the Siglo VI as my prize when I won the Habanos Man of the Year award a couple of years back.
The Gran Reserva was under heavy lock and key a few weeks ago at the Partagas factory in Old Havana, where it was made. This is, indeed, a rare smoke. I assume that the blend of tobacco for the cigar was perfected in the blending room of Cohiba’s mother factory at El Laguito before the production was initiated at Partagas. Read more
My or Your Habano?Posted: 03:53 PM ET, February 26, 2009 I might have found my new cigar for this year: Trinidad Robusto T. What an awesome smoke. I love the rich and spicy character with a fresh, clean and floral undertone. It has all the Trinidad style that I like and more. I think it’s a 93-point smoke, non blind.
I have always been crazy for the Trinidad Fundadores as well as the first Trinidads that were only available as gifts from Fidel Castro. The latter are called Trinidad Diplomaticos, and they are the same size as the Cohiba Lanceros. The commercial Trinidads were first sold in 1997, and although they are the same length at 7 inches, the Fundadores are slightly thicker than the Diplomaticos at 40 ring gauge instead of 38.
I smoked my first Trinidad Robusto T last night during the Trinidad Night at the Havana Libre hotel to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the brand. (And I just had one with lunch before writing this blog.) The main banquet hall of the late 1950s hotel, which used to be the Hilton, was packed with people. There must have been about 500 partygoers. I sat next to David Soul, better know as Hutch in the television series "Starsky and Hutch." He was a chilled dude and a big lover of Cuba. He is working on a play about Ernest Hemingway and comes regularly to the island from England, where he lives.
The dinner last was another in a string of parties during this week’s XI Festival Habano. The big gala dinner is tomorrow night when the Cohiba Gran Reserva is unveiled. Read more
Young Is BeautifulPosted: 04:51 PM ET, February 25, 2009 I am not sure what people learned yesterday in a cigar tasting of new production 8-9-8 Partagas versus 8-9-8 Partagas from 1998. The 10-year-old cigar was smoked first during the tasting in a back room of the Partagas Factory in downtown Havana, across from the capital building that is a twin to our own in Washington D.C. London-based cigar aficionado Alex Iapichino was the organizer.
The aged cigar came from the warehouse of Hunters & Frankau, the London-based U.K. distributor for Cuban cigars. It has an aged cigar program whereby it adds a second band to a cigar with the vintage when it was placed in the box. For example, yesterday’s aged 8-9-8 had a gold sub band that read “1998.”
After about 30 minutes, the room was full of smoke. My eyes were watering and I think that the other three dozen or so people were suffering as well. I was asked to comment on the cigar in front of everyone, and I laid into the 8-9-8. I told everyone in my bad Spanish that I thought it started out really well with lots of strength and flavor but that after smoking it down about two thirds of the way, it turned aggressive and acidic. I didn’t like the cigar all that much. I gave it a mercy 82 points, unblind.
We all had to fill out a questionnaire in Spanish describing our impressions of the cigar. There was one description for overall impressions that said “Would accept if given as a gift.” I added in pen: “depending who gave it. Read more
Montecristo Open and Habanos SurrealismPosted: 11:47 AM ET, February 24, 2009 It was sort of surreal last night sitting in the Karl Marx Theater in Havana and watching a presentation for the line extension of Montecristo –Open– during the XI Festival Habano. Images of pristine golf courses, sleek yachts and powerful motor racing machines were mixed with polo tournaments, tennis matches, international regattas, and Grand Prix races to the background music of Coldplay and a number of other popular rock bands.
Modern dance numbers with a Cuban troupe followed each introduction of the four Montecristo Open sizes including the small Junior, 38 ring gauge by 4 1/3 inches, the sleek belicoso Regatta, 46 by 5 1/3 inches, the robusto Master, 50 by 4 7/8 inches, and super-charged super robusto Eagle, 54 by 5 7/8 inches. The four cigars carry the traditional brown and cream Montecristo band, but they also don a second green band with gold and white lettering. Check out the photo.
Photo by James Suckling
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Habanos S.A., the global marketing and distribution company for Cuban cigars and organizers of the festival, also mentioned the introduction of the new Trinidad Robusto T, which will be first smoked tomorrow at an event at the Havana Libre Hotel. Read more
Where There’s Smoke, There’s FirePosted: 04:56 PM ET, February 23, 2009 I just finished lunch at El Aljibe restaurant in Havana, and I noticed a table of a dozen or so dudes wearing various U.S. baseball uniforms, from the Dodgers to the White Sox. They looked like they were having a great time. They had smiles from ear to ear and a number of them were smoking cigars. I guess it was after their baseball game.
I didn’t want to be too nosy, but I went over and asked them what they were up to. I approached someone wearing a Dodgers uniform because I am born and raised in Los Angeles. “We are here playing baseball,” he said with a friendly voice.
“Where are you from in the states?” I asked.
“We are mostly from California,” he added.
They said that they had officially come to Cuba on a cultural exchange to learn more about Cuba and play baseball with the Cubans. Sounds good to me. I didn’t want to pry. And the more time you spend in Cuba, the more you realize that anything is possible.
Just think what happened this weekend. Who would have thought that Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) would have released a report over the weekend saying “that the unilateral embargo on Cuba has failed to achieve its stated purpose of 'bringing democracy to the Cuban people…”
The Senator apparently believes that travel restrictions to Cuba should be relaxed, U.S. remittances to relatives on the island should not be limited and American agricultural products should be available to Havana with credit. Read more
Let the Festivities BeginPosted: 06:32 PM ET, February 22, 2009 I went over to the Nacional Hotel this morning to pick up my registration for the XI Festival del Habano. José Antonio Candida from Habanos S.A., the organizer of the event and the global distribution and marketing company for Cuban cigars, had my package in hand with a Bolivar Royal Corona in tubo. Breakfast of Champions, I say.
The Nacional has one of the best places to smoke on the island, the courtyard of the hotel, with its Spanish colonial style arches and view on the garden.It’s great to drink a mojito or cortado and smoke.
I ran into some new friends from Australia with J.A.. Arthur and Rob were very keen cigar smokers and had just arrived from Sydney. They deserve an award from Habanos for traveling the farthest to get to the event. We sat down and smoked Royal Coronas. I always love smoking a Royal Corona with its spicy and coffee character and beautiful tobacco. And it always draws well. The Aussies were a laugh and stoked to be in town.
I spoke to a number of festivalgoers at the Nacional. Many are from the United Kingdom and Italy. I heard that 120 were coming from the Far East. But I thought it was sort of strange that most of the key cigar shops were almost empty during the weekend, or at least, they had very little traffic considering the festival was gearing up. I heard the event is sold out, but where was everyone? Maybe they are all arriving today and tomorrow?
In the past, there has always been a fringe attendance during the festival. Read more
Conference Calls and Regional CigarsPosted: 02:23 PM ET, February 20, 2009 A friend just about had a heart attack this morning. He had what he called a “global conference call” connected to “eight countries” for a “huge business deal,” but, unfortunately, his mobile phone from Cubacell ran out of credit halfway through the conversation. Doing business in Cuba can be a challenge for foreigners on just about every level. But think what sort of opportunities could be possible for American businessmen if the U.S. government drops the trade embargo? Vamos a ver. We will see.
Yesterday, I smoked a Juan Lopez Short Torpedo for the Carribean (50 ring gauge by 4 inches), one of dozens of regional smokes from last year. I found a list of the proposed 2009 releases of regional cigars on the Internet and I believe it is accurate. Habanos SA, the global marketing and distribution company for Cuban cigars, would not confirm 100 percent but sources say it is correct. I will add it to my blog at the bottom.
I love the idea of regional editions. It just adds to the variety and interest of Cuban cigars. The problem is that a number of the cigars lack character. They are good smokes but nothing exciting. I am not sure if this is by choice or the factories that make the blends and cigars just don’t really care.
Regional editions are cigars made for particular markets over a two-year period with a minimum order of 600 boxes of 25 cigars per year. The Cuban cigar agent who orders the cigar decides on the shape, or vitola, as well as the blend – in theory. Read more
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